


if we rolled down streets of fire

by logictron



Category: The Brave (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Post Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-12 14:04:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13548894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/logictron/pseuds/logictron
Summary: Fic prompt: Adam and Jaz on the couch.Post-finale. Adam wakes up in the bathroom. Night terrors are a bitch.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from the fic meme on my tumblr. Adam and Jaz on the couch.
> 
> Come prompt me! Any pairing will do. :) stupid-jeans.tumblr.com

The nightmares come back in full force within days. It happens sometimes, after a particularly dark mission, after he kills and feels nothing but euphoria. And it would be one thing if they were quiet, if he stayed in his room and no one was any the wiser. But that's not how it goes. Not at all.

The quonset hut is still a no-go, so everyone's been rotating through a couple rooms at the hotel down the street from the hospital in Adana, and it affords even less privacy than Adam's used to. But he finds himself standing in the bathroom in the dark, fists clenched, anger and fear and self-loathing coiled so tightly in the pit of his stomach,he feels sick.

"Top." Of course it's her. Quiet, steady, calm. A counterpoint to everything he's feeling just now. Because that's how they work.

It should be Preach standing there though. He's somehow always been there when the monsters inside his head get too loud, when Adam forgets how to push them away, bury them under the facts.

He did the right thing. He's nothing like his father. He's nothing like Hoffman, or any of the other men he's put down. _He did the right thing._

It should be Preach, but it's her and he feels too vulnerable for this. It takes another few seconds for him to realize she's waiting for some kind of response. Adam knows he's been ranting senselessly, that she's probably been trying to wake him for some time. Thank God she hadn't tried to touch him.

"Yeah," he mutters, forcing his hands to uncurl, his muscles to relax. It's so much more painful than it should be.

"Come on." She coaxes him back into the room somehow, and onto the couch where he'd been sleeping. Adam watches her turn on the TV and retreat to the bathroom, only to return with a cool washcloth and a cup of water. "It's not any fancy nap time tea."

Adam feels like crying at that, but instead, he scrubs his hands over his face, forcing the tears away. If he breaks now, he won't be able to pull himself back together.

"Can I?" Jaz is holding the washcloth out like a peace offering and he nods, exhaustion seeping into him as she carefully wipes at his face, the dim light of the TV lighting her features an unfamiliar blue. He thinks, not for the first time, of how beautiful she is. He's given up on pushing that particular thought away.

"Thank you." The way his voice sounds here, in this unfamiliar space in the dark, just for her, is foreign to him. Adam wonders if maybe he's dreaming, but his mind isn't kind enough for that. Not today. He reaches out to touch her, just to be sure.

It's a mistake. As soon as his fingers brush her arm, he knows. Too late now, though. What's done is done.

Instead of pulling away like she should, though, Jaz sinks carefully onto the couch beside him, tucking herself into the corner. "Come here."

Adam just stares at her until she sighs, exasperated. "Look, you need to sleep. You look like hell. The last thing everyone needs right now is to worry about you, and that's what everyone's doing. I'm not leaving you alone in here. Not tonight. So come here."

One look at her is enough to assure him she's not backing down. Adam knows because he wouldn't either. He hadn't. Not after Vallins. Not after Tehran. So he relents,laying with his head in her lap. It makes him feel almost childish, but the comfort is instantaneous.

"That wasn't so hard now, was it?" Jaz asks, and he can hear the smile in her voice, even if he's too tired to look. She's smug because she won. In his head, Dalton rolls his eyes.

"Thought I was supposed to be sleeping," he mutters.

"Then you should probably stop talking and do that."

He chuckles, or at least, he tries to. But her fingers slip hesitantly through his hair and the sound dies in his throat. They're definitely toeing the far side of the line now, the one they both know is there, the one they cling to like a lifeline. But tonight, Adam doesn't have it in him to object.

Instead, he falls asleep in her lap, her touch the anchor he needs to keep the monsters at bay. He'll worry about the rest tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I had one more prompt by this prompter for the cuddle meme. This one was "with a first kiss". It got angsty so just a warning. And don't worry, Preach will be fine. I'm not one for killing characters.

Jaz knows as soon as she sees him. They'd been taking turns getting some rest, and she hadn't even bothered to ask him to wait for her while she grabbed a quick shower before heading back over to the hospital. But as soon as she lays eyes on him, she knows it's not good.

McG catches her eye, his own unusually red-rimmed, his typically casual air quashed with grief and uncertainty and Jaz swallows back her own sadness. They can't both break, and it's looking pretty damn sure that Adam's about to do just that, hanging on by a thread.

"Come on," she says gently. This part of her is still something she's growing into, the part Adam (and Elijah and McG and Preach) had so carefully excavated from the nearly impenetrable shell of mistrust she'd shown up with three years ago.

It says a lot that Jaz is able to coax him out of the room at all, but he's visibly shaking and Preach's wife is decidedly not holding it together and Adam is in no state to do a damn thing about that right now. 

For a brief second, she considers the merits of taking him down to the cafeteria for coffee, but Jaz has never seen him like this and being someplace more public seems like a bad idea. Instinctively, she pushes him into the stairwell, nudging him up instead of down.

On the roof, the air is heavy with the threat of rain, the sky overcast and ominous. But it's not the hospital. That's good enough.

"You can't keep this up," she whispers. With anyone else, she might worry about her voice getting lost in the breeze, but speaking between them is merely a formality. No one has ever understood her the way that he does.

"He's dying." Adam sounds hollow and it scares the ever-loving shit out of her. But now is not the time for fear. Compartmentalizing is something she's very, very good at. "I don't...he can't..."

The stone pillar of a man Jaz has known for three years crumbles before her, falling to his knees on the hospital rooftop, his shoulders sagging under the weight of everything he's insisted on carrying all this time.

"I know." She kneels in front of him, reaching for him, pulling him into a hug despite the awkward angle. "I'm right here."

There have been a handful of times she's seen Top cry. But it's never been like this. Her chest aches for all the pain she can't take away, for all the reassurances she can't give him. And it fucking sucks.

Adam sobs, gut-wrenching and hollow, and it's all Jaz can do to hold on and force back her own tears. There would be plenty of time for that later.

It takes a long while for Adam to quiet. There's a light drizzle falling now, beading in his hair and on his beard. She cradles his cheek, tenderly brushing the mix of tears and rain from his skin.

"I know you're going to want to argue with me, but please just listen," she murmurs, resting her forehead gently against his. "None of this is your fault. Elijah, me, Preach, Patricia...none of it is your fault. No more than it's mine. I know you, so I know you're wishing like hell it was you laid up in that bed right now. But you're not the only one thinking that, Top. We all put our lives on the line. His life...it's not worth more than yours. Or mine. Or McG's or Amir's or anyone else's. This is my family, just like it's yours, and I would gladly die for any one of you. But we don't get to make that call. And maybe that's a good thing. But none of this is because of something you did. And every single person down there knows that. I just need to make sure you do, too."

After what feels like an eternity of him just staring back at her, Adam closes his eyes and nods slightly.

"You aren't him. You're a good man. One of the best," Jaz murmurs. "Okay?"

"Yeah." His voice isn't as strong as she'd like, but he's not fighting her, so there's that.

"And one more thing. None of us are expecting you not to break. You're here for us all the time, but you gotta let us be there for you too, okay? I know you like to pretend otherwise but you're not Superman,"

"I always thought Clark Kent was overrated." It takes a few seconds for Jaz to recognize he's joking and she laughs, sitting back on her heels."Sorry, you, uh, already took a shower today. Didn't anticipate another one."

"Eh, it's alright, I'll survive." Jaz gets back to her feet, dusting the gravel dust off her pants.

Adam stands with a groan and Jaz just watches him a second, trying to discern his emotional stability. He seems better. More solid.

"Coffee?" she offers.

"Yeah, alright," Adam says, nodding. Jaz turns for the door but he catches her arm, the gesture surprising both of them.

There's a moment of confusion on her part before it clears and she knows exactly what's coming. He kisses her like he's expecting her to push him away. But she does the opposite, pushing up on her toes, into his mouth for a few seconds before breaking away. There are too many complexities here to balance on top of everything else.

"Jaz." Her name almost gets swallowed up by the wind and the rain. She shakes her head.

"Don't. It's fine. We're fine." She smiles, nudging him toward the door. "Coffee."

"Yeah," he sighs. "Okay."

Jaz has absolutely no idea what's going to happen with Preach. But she does know she has a family behind her, and so does Adam. And it might be rough, but they're gonna be okay.


End file.
